Apropos of the HarperCollins v. Open Road lawsuit over the backlist e-book title Julie of the Wolves, legal blogger Passive Guy (aka contract lawyer David Vandagriff) has written a fairly lengthy post looking at the question of whether e-book rights are covered in pre-e-book contracts. Passive Guy writes: A fundamental legal question involved in construing a contract is what the parties intended at the time the contract was made. The intent must be manifest in some form in the written agreement. A secret intent by one party that the word tomato also includes avocado won’t bring...

From Shelf Awareness: HarperCollins today is launching its Comprehensive Backlist Program that will enable independent bookstores with Espresso Book Machines to promote much of the company's backlist through a combination of "a core assortment" of printed books on the shelves and in-store "digital-to-print at retail." The program encompasses thousands of adult trade paperback titles and some YA paperbacks. For now, illustrated books, picture books and some other titles are not included.The program officially begins at 1 p.m. Eastern time, when the initial nine participating stores will simultaneously print a copy of Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett. (Patchett became an independent...

In regard to the HarperCollins’s lawsuit against Open Road over the Julie of the Wolves e-book, I received an email from Open Road representative Josh Raffel today with a couple of brief statements from Chris Davis, Open Road’s COO. Of the case itself, Davis writes: “It appears to us that HarperCollins is trying to intimidate authors, overturn established law and grab rights that were not in existence when the contracts were signed many years ago. We are confident that we will successfully defend authors’ rights and we look forward to filing our response...

A couple of days ago I mentioned the lawsuit HarperCollins filed against Open Road for e-publishing the backlist title Julie of the Wolves by Jean C. George. I’ve just come across entertainment lawyer Lloyd J. Jassin’s analysis of the issues on his blog, Copylaw. Bringing up previous precedents that relate to similar matters (such as whether the rights to screen a movie also include the rights to screen it on TV), Jassin discusses the legal basis that courts will sort out in their decision. He also mentions that courts will usually decide cases of ambiguous contracts that seem...

Harper Collins’ takes a different approach from its competitors in its quest to ripoff Aussie readers.  Rather than massively overcharging Australians to prop up their foreign operations, they have gone for a more mixed, global price hike strategy.  This does, of course, involve over-charging Australians.  But hey, why not take a global stance by overcharging everyone.  Not that this should surprise anyone given HarperCollins is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s communications empire.   The price samples below come from an Amazon advanced ebook search by entering Voyager and eliminating the odd (not relevant titles) and books that did not have both Australian and...

HarperCollins is considering selling interactive ad space in factual e-books, New Media Age reports. The ads would be limited to books that convey factual information, rather than fiction titles. HarperCollins group digital director and publisher David Roth-Ey explains: “Certain kinds of books create immersive reading experiences whereby ads would be too interruptive for readers, and publishers and even advertisers aren’t likely to put a premium on that. But information books, for example a Collins birds guide, could provide very valuable real estate for contextual advertising - in this case potentially a binoculars manufacturer.” Other...

We had previously reported about HarperCollins shameful release of this ebook, which they clearly had not bothered to proofread.  This afternoon I received the following email from Amazon about its replacement.  I don't know if other formats have been replaced as well. Hello, We are happy to announce that an updated version of your past Kindle purchase of Snuff by Terry Pratchett is now available. The version you received had typos that have been corrected. You can receive the new version by replying to this email with the word "Yes" in the first line of your...

Thanks to E-Reads for publishing this important announcement in full (blockquotes omitted): n a first from a major trade publisher, HarperCollins Publishers today announced “Comprehensive Backlist.” This program will allow all physical bookstores, from the largest to the smallest, to promote and sell the HarperCollins backlist through in-store “Digital-to-Print at Retail” (DPR) using the Espresso Book Machine (EBM). The program will enable bookstores to offer thousands of trade paperback books from the HarperCollins catalog through a mix of traditionally printed books and DPR, as space and cash flow restrictions will no longer be a...

From The Guardian: Novelist Polly Courtney has dropped her publisher HarperCollins for giving her books "condescending and fluffy" covers aimed at the chick lit market. Courtney self-published Golden Handcuffs, a fictional exposé of life in the City, in 2006 after quitting her job as an investment banker, following it up in 2008 with Poles Apart, about an ambitious Polish graduate who moves to London. Their success helped land her a three-book deal with HarperCollins imprint Avon, but at the launch of the third book, It's A Man's World, she announced that she would not be working with the publisher...

From The Bookseller: HarperCollins e-book sales now comprise 11% of its total revenue, the company has said following parent NewsCorp's latest results. As has now become customary, figures for HarperCollins were not stripped out. There was no mention of the publisher either in NewsCorp's results for the year to 30th June 2011. ... Children's had its second best ever year and e-books comprise 12% of total sales in the US across the last 12 months. However, it added for its most recent quarter, e-books comprised 19% of US sales and 11% of worldwide. ...

The following is the full press release issued by the law firm in this important lawsuit.  As a former corporate lawyer who used to teach antitrust law to my fellow employees, I must say that I'm surprised that it took so long for someone to do this.  On its face, the current arrangement seems to be a pretty clear violation of the antitrust laws related to price fixing and certainly also contains strong elements of conspiracy.  I would be pretty nervous if I were the publishers' lawyers. SAN FRANCISCO – Hagens Berman, a consumer rights class-action law firm, today announced it...

Digital Book World has a ten minute video interview with Brian Murray, CEO of HarperCollins, where he talks about how the publisher is experimenting with new business models in the digital age. It's worth watching the full interview, but this is what he has to say about HarperCollins' controversial library lending policy: Libraries are a really important channel for HarperCollins. We’ve talked about discovery of books and libraries are where a lot of discovery happens in many communities across the country. So HarperCollins is committed to that library channel. The challenge is that we’re trying to balance the needs of all...